Take two athletes. One took a cocktail of seven drugs and went to the High Court to seek a second chance and a place in the Olympic Games, the other went to Paris and produced the run of her short life to cement her status as a teenage prodigy and qualify for Beijing. Dwain Chambers’s failure dominated the headlines on Friday, but Steph Twell’s success a few hours later in Paris may be the more telling come London 2012. If you want your role models to come with a drug-free mantra and a Chariots of Fire DVD, then the defence rests.

Twell is the most exciting young athlete in Britain, but she is quick to acknowledge the part played in her rise by the mother of all marathon runners and a little-known wannabe who once had TB tattooed on her in an ill-spelt attempt to declare her loyalty to Team GB. Emma Pallant’s henna logo has long faded, but Twell’s story remains indelibly linked to her and Paula Radcliffe.

The latter’s endorsement of Twell through a Nike grant in 2006 was a mark of approval and they have remained in contact through texts and e-mails. Perhaps more significant, however, is the role played by Twell’s training partner from Aldershot, Farnham & District Athletics Club. While Britain argued over Chambers’s appearance at the Olympic trials, Twell and Pallant were grabbing gold and bronze at the World Junior Championships in Poland nine days ago. “They talk about the loneliness of the long-distance runner, but it’s never lonely when we’re running,” Pallant 19, said.

Twell, two months younger at 18, agreed. “It’s what we chose from an early age when we saw something that the other girls didn’t,” she said. “They didn’t want to push themselves and make it hurt like we did. We knew there were no short cuts, that nothing was going to be spontaneous.”

Twell’s aim for 2007 was to win the world junior title, with the Olympics a sugary bonus. Her time of 4min 5.83sec in a Golden League 1,500 metres in Paris booked her passage to Beijing and, while it would not bother the global elite, she has two European Junior cross-country titles and shades of Radcliffe’s obsessive will. She has her future mapped out – 1,500 metres in London, 5,000 metres in 2016, the marathon in 2020.

“Paula has shown how you can push your body and compete against the Africans,” Twell said. “It’s an honour if people think I’m following in her footsteps, but I’m making my own journey.” And being in the same Olympic team? “Amazing – I can make some mental notes for the future on how she handles herself going into major championships.”

That future looks long and bright. “We’ve been training together since we were 10 and we’re living and breathing it together,” Pallant, who will not be on the plane to Beijing, said. “Everything we do is for 2012, but it won’t stop there. That’s just another stepping-stone.”

For those who think that athletics is despoilt by cheats, Twell is a breath of fresh air, but how will she cope with the mounting pressure? “I think of a quote from Al Oerter, the American discus thrower,” she said. “He said, ‘Pressure is nothing more than opportunity - why not embrace it?’ I reflected on that and it’s so true. The pressure put on me is actually something I’m trying to achieve.”

Twell is not the type to be happy making up the numbers in Beijing, but the truer tests lie ahead and she hopes that Pallant and her long-term coach, Mick Woods, will be with her every step of the way. The friends give each other good-luck cards, their families socialise and Twell recoils in horror at Woods’s memory of them as young girls, hiding behind trees during their warm-downs.

Woods introduced Twell to Chariots of Fire and the DVD will be going to Beijing. She and Pallant sound like savvy innocents, but their view on drugs is pragmatic.

“Don’t moan, get in there and do something,” Pallant said. “We want to get tested regularly.” After six months of talking and a High Court battle, Twell cut to the nub of the debate. “Our advice is train hard,” she said. “That’s the best thing for your performance.”